that sounds great beth... it sounds like you two have considered the various options and at 4 years old, while that is not ancient, it is "getting on" as far as computers go and you certainly could be seeing some hardware issues - aside from having less ram or HD space than you would get on a new machine. I say go for it! (the new one COMES bundled with XP tho right? i mean, you would not be planning on using an XP recovery disk from your current Dell for it i hope - just in case - that will not work!)

here's hoping to see you on a brand new machine real soon! Tell Jeff too, I surely can relate how frustrating these things can be and they just eat up time like the dickens... i have several outstanding issues at home i'm just not up to dealing with, emotionally, lol... fortunately mine are not critical, so i keep delinquently procrastinating...

c u soon i hope



~ waves ~

Yep at a certain point ya gotta just give up on the bandaids. Can't patch them together forever...

Just built my parents a new machine since theirs was acting up - we had to get a new case & new DVD player last summer, so all i had to do is get new mother board, ram, cpu & hard drive- so all new now.
oh I did buy a XP CD for them since they only had an old copy win98 before.

If ya know a local person or place that builds them you can save about half the money...as long as they give a guaranty/warranty and use quality parts and not knock offs..
I'm the warranty /IT person for mom & dad